Following an investigation into the deaths of at least 8 banana plantation workers in Ratanakiri last month, authorities declared contradictory causes, with some citing wine and others pesticides.
Officials also disagreed on the number of people who died.
The director of Ratanakiri provincial health department, Ung Ratana, said during a meeting on Sunday that the dead workers had no physical illness and had likely been killed from exposure to chemical products such as herbicides and pesticides, according to a Sunday statement from the Ratanakiri Information Department.
Ratana added that a provincial official had visited the medical center in Sre Angkrong village in Kon Mom district, where the sick workers were treated before their deaths. The workers had experienced seizures, weakness and vomiting, Ratana reportedly said. They had been working for a banana plantation run by Vietnamese company THACO-AGRI, provincial authorities stated.
Ratana could not be reached for comment by CamboJA on Monday.
But Ratanakiri governor Nhem Sam Oeurn told CamboJA on July 3 that only eight workers had died and that authorities had tested the wine they allegedly drunk and found it had dangerously high levels of an unspecified poisonous chemical.
“As a whole, we assume it was because they are drinking alcohol,” Sam Oeurn said.
The company which employed the workers was not under investigation after authorities ruled the likely cause of death had changed to wine, the governor added.
Last Thursday, Oeurn told CamboJA that ten workers had died and said the cause may have been chemical poisoning from pesticides.
Ratanakiri provincial police chief told CamboJA on Monday that 10 workers had died due to poisoning from wine, according to an expert.
“We can’t provide a clear reason because the authorities are working more to find the truth while the suspicion from experts is because of the poisonous substance in wine,” Ung Sopheap said.
Ratanakiri’s governor said that the differing numbers of dead workers in the case were likely because other sick patients in the hospital had been accidentally included in the death toll by authorities.
On Monday afternoon, the provincial information department posted again on Facebook saying there had been 10 people who died and another person who received treatment for wine poisoning.
“This case is because of wine poison that was sold near the company and 5 people among the 11 are banana farm workers,” the post stated.
By evening, the Facebook post appeared to have been deleted.
Sre Angkrong’s village chief Keo Lot said he was not sure if the cause of death was due to wine or chemicals from agricultural products.
“According to the conclusion, [authorities] suspect it for two reasons, first using chemical substances in the farm and also drinking alcohol,” Lot said. “When the worker sprays the chemicals and does not clean their body and just drinks alcohol, it easily makes people poisoned.”
Sre Angkrong medical center volunteer Him Thomea, who is also a local resident living near the banana farm, said she saw the workers arrive, vomiting.
“I don’t know what caused them like that, I saw them come to hospital with pain in their chest and seizures,” she said.
In 2021, CamboJA reported the use of pesticides and herbicides had led employees at THACO-AGRI’s plantation to experience dizziness, gastrointestinal problems and headaches.
The provincial national police chief, Sopheap, said authorities were continuing to investigate: “Now we are working hard to find the truth, whether it is because of wine or something else.”
